


The Mystical Land of Coffee and Essays

by Elimeade, seaminglyComplex



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ace character, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Character, Asexual Jughead Jones, Bisexual Character, College, Demisexual Character, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, bisexual reggie, demisexual jughead, kind of, reghead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-01-30 05:23:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elimeade/pseuds/Elimeade, https://archiveofourown.org/users/seaminglyComplex/pseuds/seaminglyComplex
Summary: This was supposed to be a collection of one shots, but it turned into a moving plot with a little more drama than originally anticipated.  Follow the misadventures of two guys that love to hate each other and can't live without trying to out-snark the other in the hell that is college.Note: The characters are kind of a personality mix of the comics and RD, but the the events of either haven't happened in the story unless explicitly stated. I tried to find a happy middle ground and honestly there's so little for this pairing at all that I had to do something about it.





	1. Short story, short fuse

A lot changed between the end of their high school year and the start of college. People were starting to realize that there were more important things to worry about in school now, since everyone there was there by choice. Many were there through loans, working hard to keep up grades so they don’t have to take a class a second time and pay for that extra semester. One of those people was Jughead Jones. His family may have once had money to spend frivolously, but that changes quite a bit ago and he’s learned how to adapt to that, even if that meant having to accept that he would be in debt for many, many years. He got a good number of scholarships to help, mostly from his writing and showing off the time he did in the school paper. It softened the blow, but not significantly. 

Reggie Mantle on the other hand got a full ride despite the fact that his parents had more than enough money to help support his schooling. Things changed, but not drastically. Bullying was much less of an issue, it was more of a mild annoyance in the back of a classroom and less of a targeting nerds and throwing them in trash cans or slapping the lunch out of someone’s hands. Being obnoxious in the quad, playing hacky sack and guitar probably, if Jughead had any guess what his schedule would consist of. He could have sworn that he purposefully thrown a frisbee at his soda already. He was still a menace to society, just a little more relaxed than before. 

He was easy to ignore if he was out of sight, or at least on the opposite side of the hall or whatever. During class he was mostly tolerable. Stayed pretty quiet, aside from the occasional burst of laughter after the sound of an undecipherable whisper from his friend. Annoying, but tolerable.

It became less tolerable though, when the class discussion happened. It was only a matter of time until they had a spat. In fact, he was sure that it was going to be before the first two months of class starting. There weren’t many voices hopping in, mostly the same three or four people as usual. Archie tried his best to be a part of the conversation often times, but tended to point out the most obvious parts. It wasn’t too helpful aside from the fact he was the one to chirp in first and get things kicked off. 

The assignment was pretty simple: read the short story Ponies by Kij Johnson and dissect it’s meaning. It was a morbid story about growing up and having to make unknown sacrifices. At least to Jughead, that’s what it was. He was in the middle of explaining, “The other girls forcing her to take away her pony’s abilities represent having childhood taken away and responsibilities thrust upon her.” When he heard a muttered huff of laughter a couple of desks away from him. There he spotted Reggie looking down at his notebook, pencil moving in small circles. Probably doodling idly, wanting to do anything that wasn’t this. He ignored it for a moment then continued. “Her giving into them was resigning and taking hold of the situation.” 

There was a sigh and the sound of a chair straining against someone leaning back against it with all their weight. Reggie was now looking over. “Figures you’d try to think it’s something so edgy,” He said with his arms crossed. 

“Alright, did you even read it? What do you think it is if you’re so critical of what my interpretation of it is?” Jughead decided to challenge him, since he decided that he could criticize his analysis so rudely. 

“Yeah, I just don’t feel the need to rattle off what I think it is as long as I possibly could, but at least you’re eating up time for the rest of us.” He shrugged his shoulders, folded arms adjusting on his chest to accommodate the challenging action. 

“That’s literally the point of this discussion. What do you think it is if you think you know so much about what’s going on in the writer’s head.” Jughead came back with in a rather flat tone. 

“Peer pressure, obviously. You’d have to be an idiot to misinterpret that much.” Reggie scoffed, looking around to one of the boys on his right before looking back to where Jughead was to affirm his beliefs. He could actually see where he was coming from with that much but there was no way he would agree with it now that he said it out loud. 

“Alright boys, let's simmer down some. This is supposed to be a friendly debate, let's try to approach this with open minds.” The professor piped in, a shorter, stout older woman with hair light brown hair. She hadn’t had the chance before to see what they were like when pitted against each other yet. She was about to learn and Jughead was sure that she was not going to be thrilled with the rest of the semester to have them both in there. 

Reggie nodded, sitting up and leaning his elbows against the desk. “You’re so right. I’m so sorry, Ms. Montes. Simmer down, Jones. You’re ruining this discussion for the rest of us.” 

Jughead was many things, but a quitter was not one of them. “Right, cause I’m sure Mantle the Moron didn’t carry over here? Now you’re going to be the star student? Peer pressure is such a cop out example that anyone can throw onto an analysis if they try hard enough.” He threw right back, fire flaring back up in his stomach in order to try and win the argument now. 

“Boys, we have forty minutes left in class and I refuse to have it filled with your little spat. You two will need to stay quiet for the rest of class or you’re going to have to leave the rest of us to carry on the discussion without you.” Montes warned from the comfort of her seat in the center of the room. Jughead felt a hand on his arm. It was Archie with thick, furrowed brow signaling him to let it drop. He knew that the both of them being in that class made it tolerable and him being there would be great for Jughead to help him out with homework later on. 

It worked for a minute or so, until Jughead tried to interject with a point about seven minutes later to one of Josie’s comments and Reggie made a point to obnoxiously call him out on it. 

They were both banished from the classroom immediately. Jughead tried to backpedal pretty hard, Reggie tried to defend his side in saying that it wasn’t fair that he got to speak when Reggie was sitting there quietly. Neither defense worked and they were left alone in the hall: shocked and bitter. 

“You know, I was hoping your douche baggery was left in high school where it belongs, but obviously you’re not finished with being an ass.” Jughead started, shoving his laptop into his bag since he didn’t really have the chance to before being scooted out of the classroom. He held onto the book and kept it tucked under his arm, turning to look at Reggie to see if he had something to come back with. Knowing him, he probably did and they weren’t going to let it die. This may have even started a semester long feud. 

“Yeah, I can’t help it when you’re so wrong that I have to be the one to tell you. No one else wanted to say anything cause you looked so proud of your edgy interpretation.” He rolled his eyes and slung a strap over his shoulder. 

“Are you kidding? It’s an edgy story. It’s about mutilating My Little Pony, there’s got to be some stupid, crazy theory behind it.” Reggie started to walk away, obviously trying to dismiss their talk but that wasn’t going to happen just yet. He followed in suit, not missing a step and marching next to him. 

Reggie looked over at him, looking him over and seeing the determined stance that he took in following him. He grinned, biting back the warmth in it and twisting it into something cocky. “You really want to talk about this even more? We just got out of talking about it for the other half of that class. You can just admit you’re wrong and go your own way now.” He tried to shoo him away weakly, slowing down his stride to discreetly accommodate Jughead’s smaller steps. 

“Because I’m not wrong and I want to know that you actually have points behind your theory and it’s not you picking the easiest way out.” He explained with less heat behind it than there was in the classroom. Like he genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say about it. 

Reggie groaned loudly and rolled his head back for a moment. “God, you really are a giant nerd. I could be doing better things than this since we got out early.” Reggie shot back, turning his head to look over at him and scan him for ulterior motives. “I’m starting to think you didn’t write the paper and you’re just trying to use my precious brain for your needs.”

Jughead snorted sarcastically and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s why I was giving a full thesis statement. Also, never call your mind precious again. I think that sort of thing sailed when you were like ten. You don’t get to have a ‘precious mind’ after that cause that sounds like it would also have to be innocent and other sorts of synonyms that fit like a square through a circle peg.” 

“Did you just use the word synonym in an actual, real life conversation without prompting?” Reggie shot back in an instant, raising a brow and smirking. 

“I know big words confuse you but I can sound it out for you if you need to google it.” 

“You know, that’s no way to try and get my views on the short story.” 

“Oh, my mistake then. Your mind is filthy and there’s no use in trying to salvage it. Is that better?” There was no sign of regret or genuine apologetic nature in general behind the words at all.  
“No, not in any way shape or form. We can work on that though. If you admit that my mind is a holy, wonderful place, I’ll be a nerd with you until until the time that class was actually supposed to end. How’s that?” Jughead was tempted by the offer. They had a strict rule about never saying anything good about each other, so using it purely as payment seemed like a trick. 

“You’re not going to record me saying that or anything, right?” He asked, using cautious steps now that they neared the on campus cafe. “That sounds like a dirty trick, it would be wrong of me to lie like that to get you to do the classwork that we didn’t do.” He said slyly, a clever looking grin creeping onto his face. 

“Yeah, well that’s the price of a beautiful mind. Pay the price or bounce. I woke up way too early for this shit so I’m gonna energize.” Reggie tipped his head in the general direction of the counter and stopped in front of the entrance. “So what’ll it be?” 

Jughead slowed to a stop as well, now looking at him with an emotion that was far too intense for the situation at hand. “Hands up so I can see that this stays between us here and now.” He waited for him to comply, giving him a stern look that stopped the witty comment as it touched his lips. “Your mind is a wonderful, holy place. Supposedly.” he refused to look at the smug grin on the athlete’s face as he admitted it, but he knew just from the radiance coming off of him that it was there. 

He hummed with pleasure, leaning in ever so slightly and let his hands drop to his pockets. “That’s almost right. Let me hear it one more time.” 

“I think the fuck not. That was a once in a lifetime offer and if you missed it, it’s gone for good.” He crossed his arms, now holding the book in his hand instead of pinched under his arm. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you to say it after you hear how much better my ideas are.” He insisted, walking in and not bothering to hold the door open for Jughead as he followed. “Hurry up before I change my mind.”

“Don’t hold your breath. Or do.” He came back, catching the door as it was closing in on him. They ordered and found a booth in the corner where people didn’t tend to look immediately, and fell into an almost friendly debate over coffee.


	2. Teamwork makes the dream work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt “i accidentally flooded the laundry room and you really needed to do laundry” and I have always wanted to do this for something and I had a lot of fun with this one. No beta for it again sorry, I'm just doing these for fun and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I like writing it? This ship needs some more love.

The day was mostly normal. As normal as you could get in the Riverdale college. It was pretty common to see someone burning up dinner in the mostly communal living area complete with couches, a tv, a few tables and chairs off to the side and a kitchen in the very back. Then boys’ area was, clearly not the tidiest but JUghead had seen worse. That mostly happened during finals. It was as if the place turned into an unforgiving jungle the place got so disorganized. 

The week was fine, spending every spared moment to study or more appropriately procrastinate doing so and justifying the small things that let him get out of his room for even just a few moments to take a break from the essays and readings that were looming over his head. He decided that for the first time in two weeks, he should do laundry since the same three pairs of pants were starting to show signs of struggling and the tee shirts were piling up to the point that he didn’t know what was clean or not. Laundry wasn’t fun, but it was an excuse to get out of the tiny room he shared with Kevin. He enjoyed his company well enough, they weren’t ever really the greatest of friends but he was cool. It was just a lot to be confined in a tight space with anyone that long and it was the middle of the night. He was going stir-crazy. 

He gathered his clothing in the plastic hamper from Wal-mart and trudged down the hall and around the corner to the loner room that was dedicated to the pay-to-use washers that were provided to them. He stopped short of entering, hearing some suspicious sounding, metallic thuds. He stared for a moment, contemplating even going through with dealing with whatever was on the other side. He decided that whatever it was peaked his interest more than going back to his room. He opened up the door slowly, balancing the basket with one hand and his hip only to have it slammed back shut abruptly. 

He looked at the door quizzically and reached for the knob again, determined now to see what it was that was keeping him from entering. He turned it and pushed, but didn’t feel it give the normal amount of pressure that you’re supposed to treat these door type situations. “What the hell.” He said to himself in somewhat disbelief. 

“Hey uh, I have to do laundry, can I get in there?” He said a bit louder to try and get through to whoever was blocking his way because at this point that’s all it could be. He jumped slightly at the chill he felt creeping it’s way around his foot, taking a step back and seeing a puddle start to from where the door had opened. “Oh my god, are you serious?” 

He tried the door again, pushing a little harder. “If you come in you gotta help me, dude.” The voice said, muffled from the other side of the door. It sounded familiar, obviously. Everyone knew everyone, but the panic and slight desperation made it hard to pinpoint just who it was. 

Jughead huffed and shrugged to himself. Sounded like the guy needed it, but was he already regretting it. “Yeah, sure I’ll help you out I guess.” 

The door opened quickly and he was pulled inside. It was shut behind him just as fast and he could see a very panicked and disheveled Reggie Mantle in front of him, standing in a puddle that was quickly growing. His jaw went slack as he looked down at the ground now at what was unfolding. The washer closest to the door was leaking from under it quickly, foamy bubbles growing from between it and the one next to it and a towel shoved under the door to keep it contained. “What happened?” He asked, taking in the scene and stepping away from the water since it was already soaking the bottoms of his space-themed pajama pants. 

“I don’t know, I didn’t do it on purpose.” Reggie bit back, showing signs of being bitter about who it was on the other side of the door already. “I just came back and the machine was losing its shit.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked around at the scene that was starting to unfold. Luckily, it hadn’t made its way around the entire room, but there was a lot of damage it could still do. 

It took a moment to figure out what he was going to do, but it didn’t take much thought for Jughead to take out his phone and start tapping something out on it. 

Reggie stuck his arms out at his sides in shock, staring at him and the phone. “Dude, what the hell? Are you just gonna sit there and take a picture or something?” 

“No, but I should. This is hilarious.” He snorted dryly and continued to stare at the screen. “No, obviously. I’m looking up what the hell to do because I’ve never had the pleasure of breaking a washing machine on my own. I’m truly honored to be here for your special moment.” He said with a mock bow and dropped his basket of clothes on the floor. 

“I swear to god, I’m going to kick your ass out of here. Right now is not the greatest time for this shit.” Reggie warned, visibly at the end of his wits. 

“Yeah, I got that. I’m waiting for the page to load. The wifi here is horrible, and I’m not gonna use my data for this.” Jughead said with a lifted brow. 

Reggie groaned lowly, watching the water spread and walked over to the machine to do something. Anything at that point would have been great. He started pressing buttons, mostly the stop load option quickly and repeatedly. 

“Well, it says not to do that. That’s number two. Don’t unplug it either or it’ll shock us.” He read off the list quickly as it was loading. 

Reggie looked back at him, hands gripping onto the machine. “Are you kidding me? That’s the most reasonable option. When you want it to stop, you hit stop.”

He shrugged, looking right back at him. “You would think, but no. It’ll drain all of that and it might go on the floor.” He sighed frantically and put his phone down on the table in the middle of the room. “We have to get all the water mopped up it says.” 

They both looked around for something to do the job, a mop preferably but it didn’t seem like that was going to be immediately available. There was a shot of anxiety through his body when they discovered that there wasn’t one to be found in the room. “Why do they trust college students not to do this kind of stuff?”  Reggie asked, looking at him roll his pant legs up to his knee. “We have to go get a mop to clean this up, dude.” 

“I don’t think they trust college students to have something that can be ridden like a horse or play swords with.” He explained with half a smile.“We just need to get it off the ground, if we need to we can go get one but I don’t think we should leave it alone right now.” He explained and reached over to his basket, grabbing a fist full of clothes and throwing them on the water. “Do you have anything else that you haven’t washed yet? Like towels or something?” 

Reggie watched him lay down clothes and turned to his own hamper which seemed nicer than Jughead’s. It was made of a type of canvas fabric and would have seemed a lot nicer if not for the giant Ikea tag sticking out the top. “Not a whole lot. Nothing that’ll soak up that much.” 

“Well, I don’t know how well my jeans and tee shirts are going to hold up against this. Can you throw it down just so we can get this taken care of?” He asked as he lined the bottom of the machine with the two towels he had. 

“Nah, I think you’re doing fine without my underwear being laid out for you. Looks like you’ve been hoarding this shit for a while.” Reggie pointed out the sizable pile, moving around the jeans with his feet to collect more water until they were sopping wet. 

Jughead scowled at him, watching him pick them up and put them on the table. “Really? Is now the time to get shy about our intimates? I promise not to tell the team about your lacy undies.” 

“Yeah? Are you one to talk with your dog and cake boxers?” Reggie asked, seeing the wide array of scattered articles of clothing with a snicker. He moved on to one of the shirts on the ground, sweeping it from side to side. 

Jughead turned the basket in his hands over to dump what was left on the puddle. He took a second to kick the pile over some so it dispersed a bit more around the floor before turning to the cloth hamper. “Man, looks like we need all the help we can get.” He clicked his tongue and turned that one over as well. 

Reggie threw his arms up and flung the soaking tee shirt his way, slapping the side of his torso squarely. It brought out a gasp from the cold wetness splattering against him. “Did you really just do that to check out my underwear? What is a pile of boxer briefs gonna do against a flood?”

“A single grain of rice can tip the scales. It can mean the difference between victory and defeat.” Jughead said confidently as if he wasn’t pulling a quote from Mulan straight out of his ass and kicked over the mound of delicates. “Darth Vader undies? Is that your salute to the dark side or your dog?” He snickered some, seeing the true side of Reggie that he kept hidden, quite literally.

Reggie growled and dropped to the flood to start mopping up the mess that was surrounding them. “Shut up and get this shit cleaned up. I don’t want to be stuck in here any longer than I have to.” 

It didn’t take much longer to get them both to work, throwing teasing comments each other’s ways here and there, but mostly concerned about the task at hand. Considering the issue that they started with, it was pretty easily contained after about ten minutes of slopping around clothes on the floor and wringing them out in the industrial looking sink provided to them in the corner of the room. 

They even managed to bump into each other and not bite the other’s heads off which seemed to be a large improvement of their snark levels. 

“I hate to say it, but we don’t make a bad team.” Jughead sighed in relief to see that the water seemed to stop coming out from under the machine. 

Reggie was on the ground, kneeling on a patch of soggy tee shirts and peering under to make sure that the coast was clear. It was a perfect scene to close this crazy adventure at… Jesus, was it really just about three in the morning? He stared at the time on his phone and rubbed his temple gently. He still needed to do laundry. Especially now that it was all covered in soapy floor water, but it seemed too late to do anything productive. This took away most of the energy that he had saved up for this unremarkable task. He looked back up to Reggie, starting to sit up on his haunches with a sigh. He flipped open the camera and snapped a few rapid-fire pictures for posterity. 

They were good shots. He was a hot, soaking mess on the ground with his hair slicked back and pointed in every which way. His shorts and tank top slightly wrinkled and damp in areas that had articles of clothing that were airborne. It would be one for later, whenever it would be relevant in their arguments. 

He slipped it into his back pocket, letting out a breath he didn’t know that he was holding in. “Well, I’d say crisis averted. We should probably tell the people at the office or something now, right? So no one else does the same thing.” 

Reggie snickered a bit, standing up with an exaggerated motion that Jughead figured was better for not straining muscles or just for showing off that he was balanced enough to not have to use his hands to steady himself as he got up. “Yeah, or we can leave it for someone to absolutely do that again.” 

“I mean, yeah we could do that but when they find boxer briefs with your name Sharpied onto the tag jammed in the motor and will know the whole truth.” Jughead gave him a knowing look and started picking out some of his clothes out of the mess that they had made on the floor. He still had to do his own laundry, now especially since everything he owned was sopping wet. 

“Shut up, they wouldn’t know a thing.” He started, looking over the floor as it slowly cleared with Jughead’s hand. “I’ll call in a bit.” The second part of the statement seemed like there was more behind it that he wasn’t sharing, or was still developing in his head. Either was possible, but he still wasn’t sure how to read him 100% of the time. It was intriguing most of the time, part of why he usually came back for their banter. “Hey, uh, thanks for helping me out or whatever. I could have gotten myself out of it just fine, but it helped.” Jughead could see the instant regret darting across his face as he failed to find better words than ‘Your help helped me,’ but it got the job done. 

“Don’t mention it. I don’t think you’d do the same for me, but stranger things have happened.” He said with a shrug, pouring in an unnaturally colored liquid in after the clothes. He pushed in some coins and started up the washer, holding his breath for a minute until it was clear this one wasn’t going to bust like Reggie’s.

Reggie picked up the rest of the clothes on the floor that was just the remains of his underwear. “Yeah, don’t worry. I won’t mention it. It’ll be our little secret.” He assured and threw them into the next washer available. 

Jughead rolled his eyes at the comment and patted the top of it. “Well I’m honored, my only request is that the staff be notified because I’m not doing that shit again.” 

“Aww, so you’ll only do it for me? Now I’m honored.” He boasted with his chest out and a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. 

“Yeah, don’t get used to it. You owe me one now.” He pointed at him and made it be known that he was being watched. “I’ll hold you accountable to that too.” He said, starting to walk towards the door. He was tired from that and the adrenaline was wearing off.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. I’ll see you in class, Beetlejuice.” He said with a half-hearted wave and a glance.

“See you, Jockstrap.” He returned, turning around and leaving for forty minutes until his laundry was set to be done. 

He got back to his room and slid back down into the chair given to him by the school. Uncomfortable and smelled vaguely of farts of past tenants, but did the job it served. He tried to sit down and study or do a paper that was due in a few days, but his mind refused to settle for something productive. It kept drawing back to the possibilities of going back and checking on his clothes to see if they were done or what was going to happen because of what they did tonight. Maybe a new washer. At least that one would be out of commission for a while. Maybe Reggie would be a little more tolerable towards him, but that was questionable. Since they got kicked out of class he’d been picking back up on antagonizing him again. Nothing like the intensity of high school, but he seemed to be there when he turned every other corner. 

He went back after an hour to switch his clothes to the dryer, bringing a book with him to keep him company since it was clear that homework wasn’t going to be done tonight. That was a daytime kind of thing to do. 

He sat down in a plastic white and metal chair and read until the timer went off, taking his lump of clothes with a yawn that shook his body. He was getting tired, but he needed to make sure to get his clothes back to his room or they would go missing from the light of day by noon. He dragged his laundry bag back to the room and laid them on the floor next to his bed to be long forgotten about until the next morning when he was scrambling for something to wear for the class he was about to be late for. 

That was when he pulled out a pair of boxer briefs that he didn’t remember owning. He knew exactly who belonged to, but didn’t have the time or patience to formulate an obviously delicate plan on how to return them without the possibility of embarrassing both or either of them and avoiding ridicule for accidentally taking them. 

He threw them on his bed to be dealt with at a later time when could afford to spare the time. 

Needless to say, they were still sitting on his desk two weeks after that decision was made. 


	3. Coming clean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation of the last chapter: an adventure in underwear.

Jughead had made the decision to return the underwear to Reggie one way or another, but that was easier said than done. The thought to throw them away a few times did cross his mind. It was the easiest way out. But no, they were probably designer and he was missing them. 

He considered making a lost poster with them on it and leave them tied to the flag pole or something, but somehow, just somehow, he figured that wouldn’t be the most responsible answer or blah blah whatever. 

The next thought after that was to try and stuff them under his door. After testing for a moment with his own door though, it was proven to be a futile attempt. He tried to figure out his schedule of when he did laundry so he could slip them back into the mix of his clothes seamlessly but noooo, he had to be irregular and make him feel like a stalker as he did it. How was it his fault that he was trying to do the right thing here. 

Right? That’s what he was doing? They used to be friends at some point in their life. They actually used to be really close. While Archie was out with Betty and Veronica and wrapped up in his own drama (in middle school, but still drama) that Jug didn’t really have any investment in he could rely on Reggie to have a funny quip, good company and a bite to eat. It wasn’t until the end of middle school or early high school that he really started to turn on Jughead’s ‘kind’ so to speak. The nerds. 

He could tell that he still wanted to make contact, maybe friendly but at least neutral at first. Passing glances as they saw each other in the halls. Reggie roaming in hoards of testosterone and Jughead now having to entertain himself with the trivialities of the drama that presented itself in their little social circle. He even found himself hanging out with Dilton every now and again for a breath of fresh air. It wasn’t nearly as fun, but at least he could say he saw sunlight that month. 

Later into the years when the football team started to find interest in picking on people who didn’t seem to be able to stand their ground, grunting insults and shoving whoever was smaller than them. It was a matter of time until they finally made their way around to him, but it almost seemed like he was holding them back from it for a while. Not like he banned them from touching him but off comments like “Come on, he’s not worth the time,”, “Let's get out of here before Morticia puts a curse on us.” After a while it stopped. There was a look when they finally laid their hands on him. 

Reggie walked by him, refusing to make eye contact the first time they left him on the ground to wallow in shame of being victim of their pack mentality. That’s how their relationship stayed after that. He wanted it to go back, and he believed that somewhere Reggie did too, but they had their own paths to follow. 

So that’s where Jughead was. Lost in thoughts and memories. Because of underwear that wasn’t his. God, was this what people felt like in those dumb rom coms when the girl left her phone in the guy’s taxi? He didn’t even know how people could do that, but here they were. He knew he was overthinking it and the best thing to do would be to just get it out of his possession. 

The next day he tried to find him. Not actively, but kept an eye out for him. Class didn’t really seem like the best time to approach him about it. Lunch was his best bet, even if it meant taking it out of his precious eating time. 

He walked up to him, hand in his pocket and messing with a coin he didn’t know he had or needed in this moment. He was feeling nervous to have a conversation with his that didn’t start with an insult and didn’t have any hidden meanings. It seemed like it should be weird, but that was their normal at this point. 

“Hey, are you busy?” Jughead asked, keeping his tone as casual as he could. There was some feeling in his throat that sort of felt like he needed to barf, but a little more tingly. It was kind of awful. 

He could feel a group of eyes turning to face him, checking him out head to toe. It was true that College made the ‘Meathead Jocks’ more tolerable, but that didn’t mean that social clicks automatically melded together. “Uhh, a bit. Why?” Reggie asked with some reservation. 

“I’ve got a uh, thing for you for class.” That was the easiest lie he could come up with on the spot that he wouldn’t have to really explain.  “The professor asked if I could give it to you.”

It was believable to an extent, he could see some doubt in their eyes about the excuse, but had no idea why he would want to lie about this. “Why did He ask you? Why didn’t he just send an email or something?”

Jughead shrugged. “Teacher’s pet never dies. But I guess I’ll drop by later if you’re busy.” 

“Why dont you just give it to me now?” Reggie asked with a challenging look. “You sure are going out of your way for this. You getting some extra credit on the side?” He teased back, earning a few snickers from the couple of guys he was hanging out with. 

“It’s like a whole thing, it’s still in my room.” He said with a roll of his eyes. “Oh yeah, I’d expend so much energy for an A in basic writing. Fuck me uuup.” He waved it off and decided that now wasn’t the time to convince him. “Anyway, I’ll catch you later then.”

He started to walk away for the most part, until he heard some shifting behind him. He looked back to see that Reggie was getting up from his chair and bidding farewell for the time being. “We should take care of this shit now.” He explained, shrugging his bag onto his shoulder and following. “You know, since you went out of your way like that.” He said with a glimmer of a grin. 

“Golly, taking my feelings into consideration and everything? You might be a gentleman after all.” He touched his chest in mock shock. “You do homework now? I thought that was one of those things you didn’t really do back in Ye Olde Days of high school.”

“God, do you ever stop being a nerd or is that like default for you?” Reggie nearly snorted at the comment. 

“Hey, I’m not the one leaving the lunch room to actively go get more homework. I think I have grounds to call you a nerd at this point.” Jughead said to counter his point with a smug grin. 

“Shit, is that what this is? I change my mind, my lunch is back there calling me.” Reggie started to turn back around, even taking a few steps back towards the room they had left down the hall. 

Jughead caught him by his surprisingly firm arm and tugged him back in the direction they were headed originally. “Oh no. You already agreed. I’m not letting you go now. Welcome to being a nerd, there’s no way out now.” He was fully stopped, trying to pull Reggie back towards him. 

If he really wanted to, Reggie could have pulled away or dragged Jughead back in the way that he wanted. He figured Reggie wanted to humor him. He turned his body to fully face him, looking down at him with direct eye contact that seemed to be a little too intense for the passing moment that it was. 

They stood there for a moment in the hall, waiting for the other to break the contact first. No one wanted to be the first, but they had to make a move at some point. Jughead shifted to let his hand fall from Reggie’s arm, adjusting to face the dorms. “Our break is gonna end soon. We should probably get going so we can catch the end of it.” He spoke in a low voice, so as to not disturb the moment. His eyes darted away for a moment, noticing the people walking by them through the hall before looking back up to meet his gaze.

It didn’t take much more than that moment though, to rattle their moment. “You blinked.” Reggie said abruptly, shoving him playfully. He didn’t wait for Jughead to rebound off of the wall to start walking towards the dorms again. There was something about it that left some feeling inside him. Something a little too raw for him to be comfortable. 

He caught back up and returned the shove, and it almost felt like they were friends again in that moment, seeing that smug grin on Reggie’s face. 

* * *

Unfortunately, Jughead almost let it slip his mind that he wasn’t actually delivering homework and he would have to explain why he waited a couple weeks to do this. He waited until they were at his door, fiddling with the plastic burger keychain while he moved to unlock it. “Okay, so I may have fibbed a bit-”

“Did you just literally lie to me to get me to your room? That’s some shit that I would do.” Reggie cut him off, receiving a flat look from Jughead in that moment. “Am I rubbing off on you?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point. Some of your clothes got mixed in with mine after the laundry ordeal and I figured you didn’t want me to throw away your designer stuff and uh, it’s not really something I wanted to whip out in front of your buddies for either of our sake.” He explained and opened up the door to reveal the room he shared with Archie. “Don’t you dare say that, I can’t live with myself if I have to know we have something in common.” It was pretty clear which side of the room belonged to who and he was suddenly nervous again. He hated that Reggie was making him feel this way and he had no idea what these feelings meant. It wasn’t like he’d really had much experience with these types of things. It felt like annoyance, but something different that he couldn’t put his finger on it. 

Reggie strolled in, obviously taking the place in. “Wait, so you’re just like hoarding my stuff? Should I be worried you’re sniffing my clothes? You stalking me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I know too much about you to want to be obsessed with you.” Jug countered with a roll of his eyes, closing the door behind them. 

“Oh, so you’re already obsessed?” He asked, raising a brow and biting his lip. He started to walk around his side of the room, poking at some of the knick knacks laying around. 

Jughead came through, smacking his hand away from his desk. “You’re gonna be missing the rest of your clothes if you keep that up.” He said off the top of his head. 

Reggie snickered at that, grabbing one of the decorations off of the desk entirely now. “Only if that’s a promise.”

“Alright, keep it in your pants before I kick you out.” He opened up his top drawer and pulled out the sleek black pair of boxer briefs with an intricate gold waistband. “Also, seriously? Versace underwear? How extra do you have to be to do that?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one wasn't based off of a prompt this time, more of a spin off of the last chapter but it was fun. Sorry for the slow update, it's been a minute but we're going forward anyway. I still love this ship and want to try and keep this ship alive.


	4. Early Bird Catches the Worm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not based off of a prompt, more my own experience in college A little bit, slightly inspired by it.). Jughead has insomnia and Reggie gets caught in the rain during his morning jog.

The thing about college for Jughead was that the stress caused him to have pretty bad insomnia. The good thing was that the campus was pretty spacious, in the middle of nowhere outside town and left the building with the computer lab unlocked at night so students could print out papers as late as they needed. Right outside that room was a lounge with a handful of couches.

The campus was spread out but had a path connecting them all in a large circle. It was nice for when Jughead was feeling restless and needed to get out of the dorm while Archie slept comfortably or when he was out on a date. Either way, he needed a way to entertain himself. This night, he decided that he would take his laptop to that lounge and watch something mind-numbing in his sweats and a tee shirt. 

It was six in the morning he was curled up with a microfiber blanket and tub of Nutella watching The Iron Giant because he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep when the rain started coming down hard. He could hear it through the walls and see thick droplets slamming into the glass seemingly out of nowhere. “Guess I’ll have to wait it out.” He muttered to himself, cursing that he didn’t bother bringing a bag with him to carry the three things he brought with him. 

The movie was good to watch again, full of nostalgia for him, but he would be lying if he didn’t admit that his mind was wandering. Touching on the future, but that train of thought got too real too quickly. Thinking about the past was a little closer to what he wanted to consider for the evening, but still felt a bit vulnerable about it. 

Reggie came to mind next; Someone who used to be a good friend of his and went their separate ways. Could they come back together and patch that up? Did Jughead want to patch it up in the way that he was insinuating in his room when he was returning his clothes? “But since you’ve been so cute pulling this whole ‘whoops I have your undies’ game I’ll think about it.” He thought about that line, groaning bitterly. It wasn’t an act, he just thought that they were on decent terms now and he should give them back. Why was underwear so taboo? It’s just a strip of cloth that covers your body like anything else. Ridiculous. 

The more he knew about how the majority of people’s minds worked, the more confused it made him feel about how differently he addressed romance and sex. Some people were just crazy for either or both. Archie in his mind was driven by always needing someone close to him romantically which wasn’t an issue, but he was glad that Ronnie and Betty weren’t out for blood for not picking between them. 

Reggie, on the other hand, Jughead hadn’t seen have a steady girlfriend-or partner(though he had never really seen him take interest in guys), but was renowned for being an obnoxious playboy. 

Both situations made him exasperated. There may have been some psychological reason that anyone was the way that they are, but he really hadn’t ever felt that way about anyone that he knew of. The way that people described love to him sounded like it snuck up on them and honestly sounded painful, even when it was good. 

He knew that he wasn’t into the idea of sex on his own. That much he gathered when people talked about their experiences and he felt nothing really. He wasn’t quite repulsed, but there wasn’t anything drawing him to the act. 

Romance was a little more complicated. The idea of having a relationship of some sort was intriguing but made him consider every other aspect that it would touch. Being around someone that much was a daunting thought. Even more so, everyone in his town seemed to be obsessed with who slept with who and who they can sleep with. He wanted to be off that list altogether. The third reason that was basically the nail in the coffin was that there was no one that made him want to see someone that way. No cinematic moment where heat took over his body and all he needed what another person blah blah blah. He was confident in his demisexuality but faltered to pin anything down as far as his romantic orientation. 

Especially after the last couple times he and Reggie interacted there seemed to be some sort of tension. Something strange there that was hard to swallow. 

He got asked out. Holy shit. He didn’t know what to do with that information. He wouldn’t mind hanging out with him again, he missed how they used to be friends. 

The movie was near the end when the door slammed open, sounding like a crack of thunder. Jughead jumped up to look over the back of the couch to see who it was. There was no one that should be awake at six AM on a Saturday in college. It was a terrible thing to willingly do to yourself. He assumed it was going to be a teacher trying to get into their office.

The wind was humming through the door, keeping it open as the sopping wet person pried it back close behind him. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. 

He stayed there, propped over the back of the couch and staring at him as he slowly started to wring out his clothes. 

“A little cold out there to be wearing shorts and a tee shirt, huh?” He called out, wrapping himself up a little tighter with his blanket.

“Well, it wasn’t five minutes ago.” Reggie shook himself a little to try to get the wet off him to no avail before just taking off the wet cloth clinging to him and wringing it onto the floor mat by the door. Jughead watched as he started to pry off his clothing. ’anything for him to show off some skin,’ He thought sarcastically.“Besides getting your body moving warms you up.” Reggie looked up seeming to finally realize who exactly he was here with as a sly grin crept along his face. 

“You know what else warms you up at six in the morning? Your bed. A blanket. Literally, sleep.” He countered, thinking that it was a pretty valid point that he wished he could indulge in.

“Oh, shit? I didn’t realize this was your room, I like what you did with the place. A lot less shit everywhere really opens it up.” He shook out his shirt and hung it on the back of one of the chairs. “Looking like the old place already.” He started to stretch.

It was too early to do this. It was clear that this was something that Reggie did regularly, staying fit and being productive in the morning. Jug was just unfortunate enough to have to stay up and he was sure the bags under his eyes were sign enough to tell that. “I’m going for a simplistic look. Supposed to open up your mind or something.” 

“The simplistic look? Is that why you just don’t do anything with that” Gesturing to his face. “You know beauty sleep is a thing right? It’s supposed to help.” 

“Oh, this old thing?” He cupped his own face. “I haven’t had time to squeeze into my mask. It’s a whole magical girl transformation sequence in the morning.” 

“I thought the whole point of masks was to make you look better.” Reggie

He turned back to the coffee table to turn off the movie, pausing it before he got a good look at what he was watching. “Then you really don’t want to see what’s under this one.” He said, turning back to keep an eye on him in case he tried anything.

He chuckled as he started to do his own workout routine in the middle of the floor. “Maybe I wanna see what you got under.” The words were nonchalant but also spoken as if it should have been a whisper and not heard if not for the fact that they were the only two in the room. “I’m surprised you’re even awake, I thought someone like you can’t function during the daylight, especially this early.”

Jug stared at him curiously at the words, “Are you really still trying to be active after that? You’re gonna turn this place into a slip and slide like that.” He said watching him do sit-ups on the ground in front of the door. “I wish I wasn’t. This whole vampire curse thing is pretty hard to break through. You have to find a witch, do this ritual thing.” He shrugged and sat on the arm of the couch, relaxing some while he leaned forward onto the couch.

“I gotta keep moving, If I just stop without a cool down I’ll fuck myself up.” He continued his movements letting out a few heavy breaths as he did. “Talk to Sabrina, she has those weird aunts she might know something.” 

“Yeah, sure thing. I’ll see if they can give me a charm or something.” He agreed, but it was clear from his tone that there was skepticism. There was a lull in the conversation that allowed his mind to wander back to his previous thoughts. It might have been the sleep deprivation, but there was something in the back of his mind nagging at him. A curiosity that refused to be ignored. “Hey, why are you flirting with me?”

The was a small hesitation in his movement and if he wasn’t paying attention he would have missed the quick look in his eyes as they made eye contact. He cleared his throat and quickly recovered. “Come on I’m just taking your lead. You’re the one that’s been flirting with me.”  

He rose a brow at him. He didn’t think that he was, that wasn’t his intention, but maybe that could have been an underlying motive. “Is that what I’ve been doing?” He asked with a small grin and laugh. “Okay, say I am. What are you expecting out of it?” Oh god, this sounded way too serious. “I mean, this is fun. I never want to stop telling you how you’re doing everything wrong, but it’s weird to me that you’re taking any interest.”

He cocked his head the side as he did one last set before stopping. “Is this….Is this really how you want to go about this whole thing? I’m really not getting what you’re doing.” He stood up making his way to the couch. “First you’re pulling the stuff like how we were as kids and it’s fun yeah with the banter but then you start doing cute stuff, taking me to coffee, trying to get me alone in your room, being all bashful and all that. Then you’re back again and acting like you haven't been doing what you’re doing.” He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. “I’m trying to go with what you’ve been giving but I’m getting mixed messages here.”

When he put it that way it sounded pretty incriminating. “Why-what? I mean yeah I think it would be great to be friends again.” He started, not knowing how to defend himself in the slightest. He enjoyed his company, for sure. When he wasn’t actively bullying him, but it had been a while since he did that. He looked away for a moment, feeling the space between them shrinking. There was that pressure again. “Right, yeah, but this is all just for fun, right?” He couldn’t meet his eyes and immediately regret souring the more fun mood they were in before.  He pulled the blanket around his shoulders and shifted his weight to sit up straight.

“Yeah friends are great, but it doesn't seem like you want to be friends Jug. With the way you’ve been at least, I took it that way.” He leaned forward closing the space even more by resting his hand on the back of the couch. “If you just wanted to return my underwear you could have just handed it to me, old Jug wouldn’t have hesitated to give it back, hell even thrown it back at me like the time my stuff got mixed in with Archie’s after practice and you returned it for him in a doggy bag. This roundabout way of doing shit isn’t you, I just took it as you being too shy to say what you wanted.”  

He felt something clench around his heart at the boldness of his words. “Jesus Christ Reggie, don’t hold back.” He spat back out. “Okay, alright, I guess I have been. I didn’t realize you were taking notes on my every move since high school.” He was one to talk there. ‘It isn’t you.’ he thought. What did he know about it? What did that mean? Something changed between these almost identical situations. He was starting to realize what it was though and it was an alarming thought. He decided to drop the original question now and focus on squirming his way out of this situation. 

“I don’t get what you want Jug. Do you want this? Do you want us to be a thing or do you keep wanting to dick around.” He looked hurt and pissed like he didn’t know if he wanted to punch him or not. “Look I thought I was done dealing with this shit, I don’t want to get played with again like all of Archie’s rebounds. You being you I thought you wouldn’t want that. But yeah I guess you right I haven't been keeping notes on you since high school, maybe this is more your style now.”

He looked back up to see the flashes of emotion plainly on his face and felt dread sinking into his bones. He didn’t mean to hurt him like this. He didn’t know what he was doing. This was new grounds for him. “No, it’s not like that. I’ve never done this type of thing before.” He let the blanket fall from around him and stood on the other side of the couch. He couldn’t sit still like that during this anymore. Especially with Reggie this fired up. 

“You know what... Nah I’m good.” He took a step back placing his hand up a lot like how Jug had done in his room. “I’ve been through this shit enough to see the signs and I don’t want it. If you want to be friends that’s fine but Just friends.” He moved to grab his shirt from the back of the chair and wrapped his phone and headphones up in them. “Listen Jug, I like you, I do but this isn’t high school.” And like that he left out into the rain like he’d rather get soaked than be in the room one second longer.

With that, he was left alone with his swirling thoughts. He’d done something wrong, and now he was aware of all the things he had been inadvertently been doing. He didn’t sleep at all for the rest of the day, staying in his room and only coming out to eat. Now there was no chance for him to be thinking about anything but the damage he just did to their regrowing friendship. 

It seemed like they were back to square one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ever get that feeling that something happened that wasn't supposed to happen and kind of panic? Cause Jug is feeling that, but also me. Because this wasn't planned for but I still love it. I've got six more chapters planned out and there may be more but here we go into drama land.


	5. Game on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "pranking someone by casting memes on youtube onto their TV" is the prompt here but take from my real world experiences

Raw and embarrassed wasn't a feeling that jughead necessarily wanted to be well acquainted with. But here he was.    
  
It wasn't like he and Reggie talked every day. It was closer to once a week or every couple of days, but he still had to admit that it hurt that their last conversation ended so explosively. Even if he had been purposefully leading him on, it seemed like it really hurt Reggie when he'd asked him what they were doing.    
  
He felt a burn of shame in causing that with something he didn't know he was doing. It seemed intense. He said they could be "just friends" but the situation didn't really sound like he really wanted to make the effort after what he'd done.    
  
He was gonna do the only thing he knew how, and try to talk it out with his best friend.    
  
He laid down on his bed across the room from Archie in the few moments that they had to spare after classes. They both usually got whisked away to do something, school related or not. "Hey, Arch, can I run something by you?" He asked, hoping that with his experience he would have some insight. Or know what not to do considering his track record.    
  
Archie stood, folding his laundry and throwing them on the bed and parked up at the mention of his name. "Sure Jug, what is it?" He asked, prompting him to go on.    
  
Jughead had been trying to form the words in his mind. He decided he wouldn't give Reggie away right away in the question. "Let's say, in theory that someone comes around after you haven't talked to them in a long time and they start to joke around and smile and want to hang out again. Would that be considered leading someone on?"    
  
It was a strange question coming from Jughead of all people, but for all Archie knew it could have been for a paper or story or something. He thought about it for a moment. "Well, I don't know. I don't think so?"

  
"Like go out for coffee, help each other out and... kind of prank each other? In like a fun way?" He figured he should clear up. "Like I didn’t think of them this way before but for some reason are drawn to each other now that we're in a new setting where we have both in theory grew as people and might be more emotionally available and understand situations more nuanced than in high school?"

Archie stopped folding now, staring at him quizzically. “This is all hypothetical?” He asked, shifting to look at him like there was something wrong. “Well, that sure sounds like an event.” He agreed, but hesitated. He seemed really stiff now. “I thought you weren’t really into the whole dating scene?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think I was either. This is a new development and it’s really stressing me out. I had a reputation. At this rate I’m going to throw all this out and marry a food tray.” He said with a sigh. “So what are your thoughts?”

“Well, uh, I think you should make sure that your friendship with this person should be treasured. It sounds like this hypothetically very close to you and shouldn’t be taken lightly. And you know the people of Riverdale, you know? Don’t be surprised if they’re like invested in someone else or something.” He explained very slowly. 

He was acting weird. Very awkward. More awkward than usual. He figured he would let him get away from it without anymore torture. “Yeah, I guess so. That’s fair.” He hummed, eyes sticking to his phone. It was a week since they had talked and he figured that the bit about friendship had something to it. “Thanks, I think that might help.”

Archie slunk away from the conversation, eventually leaving to go study with Veronica later in the day which left Jughead to his own devices. He had youtube rolling on his computer, eventually moving to his phone so he could lay in bed a little easier. 

As it turns out, there’s a button when one is on youtube on the phone that gives the option to cast it to a smart device to play on a tv that is connected to the same wifi network. The best part was that Jughead knew that if you did this, it interrupted and took over the TV no matter what it was doing in that moment. It was a dangerous button to give a bored college student. 

There were a few options listed when he started just plainly said “XBox One” and in all honesty that sounded like the best candidate to just purely fuck with. He found a playlist called “Instant Regret Clicking This Playlist (memes)” on youtube, filled with 20 second clips of utter nonsense and confirmed that he wanted it to broadcast to the selected channel. 

It only took a few seconds to hear a massive crash. It took a few more seconds to hear a door slam. 

Just from the sounds alone he was thinking that it could have gone better and just maybe he should have chosen a safer bet, like someone’s chromecast. It only took a few seconds for a rough banging on his door. It was that moment that he remembered that in the top corner of the video playing, it showed the username of the person who added it. 

His username was xXju9h43dXx and his icon was a burger with some pillows on top. It was pretty clear if anyone knew him that it was him. 

He cleared his throat and shouted. “Sorry, busy in here. Occupied.” 

“Fuck off! You ruined my run you prick.” Reggies familiar (angry) voice came through the door between the sounds of his fist being slammed against it.

Yikes, it felt like either of them could catch a break from the other. Of course Reggie would be the one to bring his xbox from home. “You’re the one that came here though, you can’t tell me to fuck off when you approached.” He said, knowing that he should not for all that was good open that door. 

He could hear some heavy breaths through the door. “You owe me Fuckhead. I spent three hours on that level.” He could almost feel the anger generating through the door.

Wow, it had been a while since he heard that name. He could hear him entirely seething through the door. He decided to get up from his bed, creeping towards it but not daring to open it just yet. “And how do you suppose I do that, Reginald?”

“Open this fucking door and you’ll find our Forsythe.” The words sounded like they were dripping with rage no matter now calmly he tried to sound.

“Yeah, that’s really appealing to me. I think I prefer you on that side right now.”

“God! You’re a fucking piece of shit, you know that.” There came another slam on the door before he could hear heavy footsteps retreating down the hall and another door slam.

He waited a moment, digging under his bed to gather some of the snacks that he was hoarding, settling on the rest of a bag of pizza pockets from the mini fridge he and Archie went half on and a bag of chips before heading out a few moments later(after heating up the pizza rolls). He felt guilty for making Reggie jump through these hoops when they were doing so good before. 

He knocked on the door two doors down from his own and waited, hoping this was the right choice. 

There came a frustrated groan and a scuffle before the door swung open and a very, very frustrated Reggie Mantle opened up the door. “You come to strait shit on my face because at this point that's probably better than what you have planned to do to me.”

“Alright, easy there. I come bearing peace offerings.” He lifted the snacks in his hands in defense. “I didn't know that was your xbox and I was just trying to have some fun in a pretty bad way. We've always known the truth. I am kind of a piece of shit.” 

“Oh yeah I forgot you're a shithead full time.” The sarcasm was dripping off his words. He looked at him for a moment before letting out another exasperated groan rubbing his face. “Why should I think that you’re not doing this just because you feel guilty and want to feel better about yourself?”

He shrugged and looked back up to him. “Because I have good food and snacks always go well with games?” He could tell the joke wasn’t landing or he just didn’t want to like it. “Alright, I do feel bad but for more than just that. It’s kind of a sorry type of thing.” 

“Just..just hold on a second.” He shut the door and scuffled around for a minute before opening it, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him in and shutting the door behind him. 

He didn't really have much time to fight the tug once it was happening, being brought into the room that looked like he didn't share with anyone. It seemed so typical of him to pay a little extra not to share with someone he might not like. “This isn’t isn’t gonna be like some weird ritual or something right?” he asked, setting the box down on the middle of the bed. The place didn't look that bad, or at least not as bad as a stereotypical jock would decorate a dorm room. It looked like it actually belonged to him, he might even have been able to point it out in a lineup. “What were you even playing that took three hours for a level?”

He unpaused the game as old timey cartoon music filled the room. “Cuphead. I've been trying to get through it on expert and It's  beating my dick.” He flopped down on his bed. 

Jughead rose a brow at the phrasing, but didn't bother to say anything about it. He was treading carefully since this was the first attempt to rebuild something they hadn't had in years. “Oh shit. I've heard some shit about that.” he followed, considering the shitty metal chair that all dorm renters got with their desk. He knew the pain it caused well and decided to join him on the bed, taking the other side. “It's like worse than dark souls, right? Why would you subject yourself to that?” 

“Yeah it’s like the hardest game to come out this year. I already beat the first two modes and I just want to finish it.” There was still aggression in his voice but it wasn’t as extreme as it was earlier. “It’s like….” He moved his hand in the air a little like he was trying to grab the right words. “There’s just something about completely a difficult thing a hundred percent. I started this and struggled with this for so long the pay off has got to be good. At least the feeling would be amazing.”

He made a clicking noise with his tongue and nodded, connecting the dots to how he completely ruined that. “That’s unfortunate. Sorry about that by the way. How close to done were you with that one?” He was wondering how he was expecting justice for his crimes, but this seemed fine. They weren’t even there to mess with each other it seemed. “Is this making up for it at least?”

“Less than a minute from the end.” He said bluntly and with the bitterness back in his voice. “The closest I’ve gotten on it.” He started up the game again bringing his character into the boss battle. “Yeah. We’ll see.”

“Consider it an extra obstacle. You get to play the super difficult mode because you’re dealing with my ass.” Jug shrugged, trying to play it off like it was fine now that they were sitting next to each other civilly.

Jughead settled back against the wall, watching on as Reggie played. He didn’t mind really just hanging out like this, he ended up going on his phone a few times in the first hour while Reggie played and died through the boss battle that he was going through. It was a pretty interesting game to him, especially with the amount of investment that Reggie was putting into it when they both could have been spending it doing better things. Class related things. Boring things. 

Jughead knew that if he didn’t offer snacks regularly that he would be the only one downing them all, so he found himself holding up the bag, having it turned down more often than not since it required using hands but did agree to a couple pizza rolls as long as he didn’t have to pry himself away from the screen. 

He found himself holding up individual pizza rolls up in the air for Reggie to bite into. That however is not how that ended up working out for him though. Reggie leaned forward to slurp it out from between his fingers, catching them behind his lips for a moment. He recoiled pretty quickly, alarmed the first time it happened. He almost tried to get away with not offering him more but then got accused of keeping them to himself. The exact words being, “What’s the point of bringing them over here if you’re the one eating them? Hand one over.” It got a bit less weird, closer to something funny. 

“Would you stop doing that? I don’t have a candy coating on my fingers, there’s nothing for you there.” He commented, wiping his hand off on the blanket beneath them. 

“What am I gonna do? Take a bite out of piece by piece out of your hand? I need the whole thing in my mouth to eat it.” He didn’t even look away from the screen to argue with him.

“Literally anything would be better than whatever this is, Reg.” He said. Popping a chip into his own mouth in need of a different texture.

“Really? Fine, alright. Give me another one, I’ll switch it up.” He leaned towards him a little bit not once taking his eyes from the screen. 

“God, alright. Sure. I hope this is in your super athletic diet.” He said, grabbing another roll and going in for the kill. He took a bite off the top before going in and sucking out the contents and wrapping his mouth around his fingers to get the rest. 

“Oh no, no, no.” He was so shocked that he just started to laugh nearly hysterically. He rolled away from him on the bed, not quite realizing that he had even scooted closer to him in the first place. It was funny, but also something that made something inside him flush lightly. “I really didn’t think it could get worse but here we are. You can’t just do something worse then the same goddamn thing.”

“Oh I’m sorry what? You don’t want me to suck your fingers?” Now the game was paused and his full attention was on him. He grabbed his hand shoving a couple of his fingers in his mouth and sucked making the grossest over exaggerated noises he could muster. 

He gasped at the immediate turn in attention, holding in a loud cackle while he was trying to pry his hand away from him. “No! You don’t know where these have been and I don’t know where  _ that  _ has been!” He reached into the battle with his other hand to push him away by his cheek, scooching back to the edge of the bed. 

“Please we both know it’s been your computer and mainly food that you’ve been touching.” He scooched closer and somewhat looming over him. He didn’t even flinch at the other hand just licking his fingers. 

“Alright, well you don’t have to call me out like that. Maybe I didn’t wash them or so-” He couldn’t quite finish what he was trying to get across as he was slipping off the bed and onto the floor, clinging to whatever he could grab onto which ended up being the blanket and Reggie’s wrist.

Reggie moved quickly reaching forward and wrapping his arm around his hip pulling him back onto the bed and coincidentally pulling him closer to him. “You really think I won’t skip out on a chance to make fun of you? Oh Forsey have you really forgotten who I am exactly?”

Jughead didn’t quite fight the help up, but he didn’t help him get back up either. His face warmed up at the embarrassment of falling flat on his ass like that and having Reggie literally able to pull him back up with no hesitation in the slightest. It reminded him that he should try to get in shape to look at least half as good as he did without a shirt on. Had Reggie not been wearing a shirt this whole time? “You know I can stand up on my own. I appreciate the help but there’s no need to show off, no one’s forgetting you.”

He could see his eyes quickly looking over him for a split second. His hands only slightly pulling away. “Yeah but….do you want to?”

There was no way he could miss the look, and while he was romantically stunted he knew it from every movie with a romantic subplot. “Want to stand up or forget you? Cause you might not like the answer.” He grinned, tone still teasing but he wasn’t pushing him away just yet. Didn’t want to feel his arms pried away from his sides just yet. 

“Yeah I think we both know the answer to that one.”

He was always impressed with how quickly he could counter him. It was almost like a battle to see who could leave the other wordless first. Jughead thought that he was unequivocally the smart one since that’s all he had to cling to, but Reggie kept him on his toes. Or at least on his bed. “You’re so modest, aren’t you?” He asked, lingering in that moment to watch the subtleties in his face shift. 

“It’s my strong suits, you know life really humbles you and all that.” 

There was an invisible tug in his chest, pulling him closer to the cocky guy hovering just above him. The feelings that he’d been pondering bubbling up in his chest and pouring over into an impulsive motion that he told himself he would never be the one to initiate. He leaned up off the bed to gently press his lips against Reggie’s, light and fluttering. He was sure that if there were any thoughts behind it beyond surface level, he would be sheepish of the fact that he could almost certainly tell he was inexperienced.

There was only a slight moment of hesitation on Reggie’s part before he pulled him closer pressing his whole self against him. He felt heavy on him, but not in a crushing type of way. It felt like a weighted blanket comforting and warm around him. His heart was fluttering on the inside of his chest, tickling the bottom of his throat. He pushed his lips in closer, driving himself on instinct more than thought now. His hands reached up to rest lightly on his shoulders. 

Reggie cupped his face giving him a few small kisses on his lips before littering his neck with more. It tickled lightly, leaving small pools of fire across his skin. 

They weren’t too far into their kiss when Jughead’s mind started to catch up with him. Starting with ‘this isn’t so bad, I could be okay with this type of contact,’ then quickly evolving to hyper sensitivity and overstimulation in his thoughts. The kisses weren’t bad really, and he was sort of open to them, but he didn’t know how to handle this type of interaction. He didn’t know what Reggie wanted and this was about all he was comfortable offering. He could feel Reggie’s arms tightening around him, hands moving down his sides. It was a sign that he had to leave while he was ahead. 

He started to shimmy out of his grasp, pushing his arms down and away carefully. “I’m sorry, sorry I can’t do this like this. It’s a lot, it’s just a lot.” He tried explaining his reasoning but stumbled over his own words. It would be easier to apologize later in a text. If there was anything they could tell from their interactions today, it was that Jughead didn’t do confrontation too well. 

Reggie looked confused and flabbergasted. “Wait..I..we..Jug...” It seemed like he couldn’t get out much more than that because Jug was already on his feet and headed out the door. 

He liked Reggie. He knew that now, but from everything he knew about his romantic life, he would be expecting a lot more than he was comfortable with and he had no idea if he would be open to understanding how this would affect their relationship or even how asexuality worked. Quite frankly, it was too late to stop them there and explain what it was. 

He shuffled quickly from the dorm to his own, pulling the door open and latching it back shut so he could swim in the comfortable setting around him. The darkened room helped his mind from swirling around like it was and here he was, questioning everything he’d been so secure about for Reggie Fucking Mantle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da? Jug is getting overwhelmed by all this. As an romantically inclined asexual I'm getting most of these from my own feelings, I know this isn't how all aces think or feel but I usually tend to see him portrayed as strictly aro/ace or allosexual and I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring here with a demi/gray idea. Thank you guys for coming by to read it, it means a lot xoxo.


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